1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to an imaging apparatus having a zoom function, and more particularly to an imaging apparatus having an optical zoom function and a digital zoom function.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a digital camera has proliferated which has an optical zoom function that optically changes the size of a subject image formed on an imaging device by changing the lens position of an optical system, and a digital zoom function scaling up/down an output image by performing digital processing on an output signal from the imaging device.
For example, a digital camera described in JP-2000-231149-A performs control so that an optical zoom function is used in a wide-angle side range of a zoom lens and the zoom function is switched to a digital zoom function when the zoom lens reaches a tele end side. By thus performing the optical zoom and the digital zoom in combination, a zoom function with higher magnification is achieved.
In the case of the optical zoom, the resolution of an image formed changes with the magnification of the optical zoom, i.e., the position of a zoom lens. Thus, in some magnifications of the optical zoom, the resolution of an image formed by the zoom lens may decrease and accordingly high resolution may not be obtained when the optical zoom and the digital zoom are combined. That is, by combining the optical zoom and the digital zoom, an image with higher magnification can be recorded but high resolution of the image obtained is not guaranteed.
In view of the above-described problem, an imaging apparatus is provided that is capable of capturing an image with better resolution in shooting a picture using the optical zoom and the digital zoom.